Now We Are Six

I may or may not have been saving that blog post title for the last five years, one month, and seven days. I can neither confirm nor deny. (But you already know it's the truth, anyway.)

"'What day is it?'
'It's today,' squeaked Piglet.
'My favorite day,' said Pooh."

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'what's the first thing you say to yourself?'
'What's for breakfast?' said Pooh. 'What do you say, Piglet?'
'I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?' said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. 'It's the same thing,' he said."

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present."

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you."

-- All quotes by A.A. Milne

Wish You Were Here

On Monday -- just three days from now -- Shae starts kindergarten. I KNOW. Didn't we just have her first birthday party like a week ago? They weren't messing around when they said time flies. Like, it was JUST Memorial Day, wasn't it? And now here we are, face to face, a couple of Silver Spoons ... WAIT. Wrong song.

ANYWAY. Shae and my sister and my niece and my parents and I played hooky on Wednesday and went to the beach, to soak up some sun and splash in the surf while we still can. (Also, we knew someone who was down there for the week, so we could stay overnight.) And you know what?

It was kind of a last-minute, game-time decision, but it was exactly the right one. It's funny how sometimes you don't realize how much you just need a mental-health, stress-relief, photosynthesizin' kind of day until you're in the middle of one and you're already 90+ pages into a book and you're sort of half sunk into the sand and you find yourself thinking, "Where has this place been all my life?"

And it was pretty much the perfect day off, too. Temps in the low 80's, low humidity, bright sunshine but not too hot, hardly anybody on the beach really, nice warm water, waves a little rough but nothing we couldn't handle. If you open the dictionary to "perfection," there is probably a picture of a day just like that.

I'm not the sort of person who normally just takes off on a Wednesday, just because, but you know what? I can be convinced.

Knee Deep

This post needs a soundtrack, so here you go. (And bear in mind that this might be the only time you'll ever see me voluntarily linking to a country song, although technically I am only doing this because Jimmy Buffett is involved. Jimmy Buffett > everything.)

We went to the beach yesterday, for the first time all summer. I am decidedly A Beach Person, so it was like a kind of homecoming.

Except that I, personally, prefer coming home to ocean temperatures that are above 64°F. That is too cold for a mere mortal such as myself.

Shae, of course, had no such compunctions. There was A Whole Big Ocean there, and she was going to be in it for as much and as long as possible.

Getting up at 5am on a Sunday to schlep yourself and your husband and your five-year-old and a trunkful of beach-related gear and soggy sandwiches 2½ hours to New Jersey is not everybody's idea of a good time.

I can sit here and complain until the end of time, but the truth is, the beach is my happy place, my sacred space. My psychological reset button is a salty piece of land.

And already, we're making plans to go back. I have a final exam tonight and a paper due Wednesday, and then I have two weeks off before the fall semester starts. The state park where we like to go for our beach day trips is open all year.

We'll be back, as soon as possible, knee deep in the water somewhere. The Powerball jackpot is over $300 million, so maybe we can make the change in latitude permanent.

Deep Blue Something

My sister mentioned on her blog the other day that My Nephew The Elder is not much of a swimmer -- yet. In so many ways, he and my own kid are so much alike -- what with the silly Pop-Pop faces and the general excitement about everything and the camaraderie and the matching superhero T-shirts -- but when it comes to the pool, he and Shae are total opposites. She is a cross between a goldfish and a mermaid and a (very skinny) great white, what with all the swimming around while singing and eating everything that isn't nailed to the concrete patio. And he ... is not, so much. He is perfectly happy to sit on the side under an umbrella and eat his freeze pop in peace. (Not unlike his Uncle G, actually.)

UNTIL.

I don't know what caused the turnaround -- the heat? some rare disease? too much to eat? or maybe it's fleas?* -- but Joey went all the way in the pool when he was "back East," for the first time maybe ever. The first time I can remember, anyway.

And I can tell from the look in his eyes that maybe he is not quite sure about this whole life-under-water thing, but I can also tell from the fact that he actually did not want to get out of the pool for a little while there that perhaps the next time we go out and visit the Midwest in the summertime, Shae will not be going down the great big waterslide by herself.

Resistance is futile, little man. You will be assimilated.

Attaboy!

A&R: TNG

I don't know a damned thing about golf, professional or otherwise, so let's just say we're calling the kids "Annika (Sorenstam) and Rory (McIlroy): The Next Generation" and be done with it.

I especially don't know anything about miniature golf. I am an absolutely TERRIBLE miniature golfer. If my husband had ever taken me on a miniature golf date, he'd never have married me, because he would have seen my Agony of Defeat face, and it is not NEARLY as attractive as my Thrill of Victory face.

Of course, my Thrill of Victory fact isn't actually all that cute, either. Winning at Trivial Pursuit all the time ever has made me smug and unpleasant. And also AWESOME AT TRIVIAL PURSUIT, BOOYAH!

These pictures are additional testimonials to the [Midwestern City] Parks District, by the way. This is an absolutely GORGEOUS miniature golf course. It was close to 100 degrees out that night, but we hardly minded, with the nice breeze over the pond and the flattering light and whatnot.

Incidentally: I'm not sure that the kids are entirely ready for miniature golf, per se -- they didn't really get the "gist" of it -- but it was HIGHLY AMUSING watching them wave their putters around all-devil-may-care about whether or not they shot someone's eye out.

Someone's been watching the Masters in HDTV. I'm not saying who. Because it might be me. But I'm not going to lie: the weekend we got our "new" TV I laid on the couch and watched Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach all weekend long and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I wasn't even drunk or anything.

This picture is just here because it's one of the few where my nephew is not the EXACT AND ENTIRE spit and image of my sister. But he's still related to me, because he looks like a very young (say, age 3½) version of my cousin Michael.

And this picture is just here because ... wow. Clearly, vacation agrees with her, right?

In Praise Of The Park District

One of the things that always impresses me when I visit my sister is that the city she lives in has lots of really nice public parks -- including a REALLY AWESOME water park.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D:

Exhibit E:

If my sister's kids were not cute enough to entice me to the Midwest, the Parks District might do it.

Where's Perry?

According to Phineas and Ferb, there's 104 days of summer vacation 'til school comes along just to end it, so the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it.

 

 

  

  

Looks like the next generation has it all figured out, though.

I'll Take Blurry Pictures Out Of Context For $200, Alex

On Sunday night while we were in Illinois, we went to a community carnival -- the kind with kiddie rides and red velvet flavored funnel cake. (Which, incidentally, was fine, although I thought the traditional flavored funnel cake was better, and in any case, I will always prefer good old fashioned fried dough because COME ON.)

Joey found a ride he really liked. Actually, he liked several of them, but the car ride was by far his favorite, I think.

Sorry for all the blurry pictures, by the way. I did use the Magic Camera but the combination of low light, fast motion, and my complete and utter inability to hold the camera steady all conspired against me. (Even with vibration reduction on the replacement telephoto lens!)

I took Shae on my favorite ride at any carnival anywhere ever: the Tilt-A-Whirl. Yes, I know I am an Oldy McDustybones, but I can't help myself. I love the Tilt-A-Whirl. I have no shame about this. I can whip that suck around pretty fast, too. That's one of my more marketable skills, actually.

The kids went on four rides total -- the cars, the Tilt-A-Whirl (Shae only), this thing that was a spinning dragon thing that we didn't get any pictures of, and a kiddie coaster called the Dragon Wagon, which is possibly the greatest amusement park ride name ever. Say it with me: Draaaaaaaagon Waaaaaaaagon. See? AWESOME.

Shae is on this kick right now where she wants to scream all the time on all the rides. SCREAM. ALL. THE. TIME. It's cute for the first ride. It's even kind of cute for the second one.

But poor Joey had to listen to my kid AND HER GIGANTIC LUNGS screaming for like two hours, so yeah, I kind of understand that face he is making in that last picture. I imagine I was making the same one.

= = = = =

For the next couple of days there might be duplicate photos, but I promise we'll get past them soon. Your patience is appreciated at this difficult time. Thanks! -- Ed.

In Her Element

They opened the pool last weekend (the weekend before Memorial Day) and so you can guess how Shae spent the weekend.

She doesn't care that the water was only 64 degrees. DOES NOT CARE.

She's been waiting for weeks and weeks -- "it's been FOREVER, Mommy!" -- and as soon as she got the green light, she was in the water.

And looking fetching in matching sun hats with my niece.

 

And eating the first "official" cupcake of the summer season.

In her element.

PARTY TIME! EXCELLENT!

Someone went and turned five without my permission. I am not ready to be the parent of a school-age child. It makes me feel so old.

She's kind of smug about it, actually, but I'll forgive her this ONE TIME because she's so cute.

She wanted to start kindergarten yesterday morning. Because when you're five, you get to go to kindergarten. Could you just die?

We had a piñata at the party but we didn't get very good pictures, but we did get a great shot of the Oogie's Ice Cream truck, which judging from the response of the crowd is maybe the single greatest thing that ever existed in the entire history of the whole wide world.

I'm kind of inclined to agree, myself. Who doesn't love an ice cream truck? Nobody I want to know.

The only bummer about her party was that it was cold, maybe 40°F. But nobody minded, really, because there was an ice cream truck.

At least sometimes she's still my little girl.